PARTLY FACETIOUS: The difference between interim minister and caretaker minister

“So Project, The Man Who Must remain Nameless failed?” “Hmmmm.” “Hey the economy faltered, the builders had a field day or shall I say three years, the Third Wife accepted gifts given in good faith by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, gifts not…”

“I get it, but a bunch of factoids: Nawaz Sharif’s Samdhi cost the economy 4 billion dollars in lost remittances in just nine months.”

“So he needs to be appreciated – he outpaced the four finance ministers between 2019 and 9th April 2022…”

“You, counting the caretakers, Hammad Azhar leads them all?”

“Get your facts right – Hammad Azhar was an interim finance minister a bunch of times, not a caretaker finance minister – the difference between an interim finance minister and a caretaker finance minister is that the former owes his office to…to…the duration?”

“Well, Hammad Azhar’s term was kinda shorter than any caretaker finance minister we have ever had. But I appreciate your effort to cover your butt…”

“Hmmm, the gifts that The Third Wife accepted from GCC countries were more expensive than the gifts accepted by Nawaz Sharif and Zardari sahib, but the reason was the roti syndrome.”

“Excuse me? Roti syndrome?”

“Roti as in bread and the syndrome I am referring to is Nawaz Sharif’s repetition that roti (and other food items) were cheaper in 2017 when he was prime minister relative to now and this reflects a bipolar syndrome because his reasoning is disordered – I mean he is not taking account of the general rise in prices over the years…”

“Ah, there too The Samdhi strikes again.”

“And both Nawaz Sharif and Zardari sahib accepted numerous gifts when their party was in power, but their accountability will be deferred till…till…”

“Right till the crows come home to roost.”

“Exactly, but my point when I referred to Project The Man Who Must Remain Nameless failed, I wanted to bring your attention to the fact that Project Nawaz Sharif appears to be failing right now and Zardari sahib is picking some electables…”

“Did someone tell Nawaz Sharif this?”

“I am not sure any of the other Sharifs have the vision to see what is happening.”

“The Visionary, Iqbal can surely…”

“He doesn’t think in days or weeks or months, he thinks minimum five to ten years.”

“Interesting.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023